Twin Valley grad Peyton McDaniel giving Dukes her best shot

By  Sean McBryan — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent

The box score doesn’t look real: 30 points in 28 minutes, 10-for-11 from the field, 7-for-7 from 3-point range.

Twin Valley graduate and James Madison junior Peyton McDaniel did that in the Dukes’ 81-51 victory over Texas State in the Sun Belt Conference championship game to clinch a spot in the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament.

“I just got into a flow,” McDaniel said. “Before the game it was pretty normal. We were ready but I feel like we had that mentality the whole tournament. I don’t think anything really changed before the game, but during the game I started to get into a flow.”

The Dukes (26-7) secured a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 and 13th time overall. James Madison is the No. 14 seed in the Seattle Region and will face No. 3 Ohio State Saturday at 1:30 on ESPN2.

“I’m really excited,” McDaniel said. “Last year we were in the (Colonial Athletic Association) and didn’t compete in the conference tournament and (we) lost in the semifinals my freshman year. It’s always something that you want to win and that’s been our goal all season. Being able to see your work pay off and go into (the conference tournament) and get it done was great.”

McDaniel averaged 12.2 points and 4.8 rebounds her freshman season after completing one of the best careers in Berks Girls League history. The Dukes went 14-10 and lost 79-76 to Drexel in overtime of the CAA semifinals.

The 6-foot guard missed her sophomore year at JMU after getting surgery on her patella tendon. The Dukes went 14-15 and didn’t qualify for the conference tournament.

“I had never been without basketball for so long,” McDaniel said. “It was just very weird to me. I’m a basketball junkie and just love the game. Being away from it was really tough.”

She tried to stay involved as much as possible, going on every trip with the team, sitting on the sideline dribbling during practice, hanging out with teammates. Rehabbing. Waiting.

“I just leaned on my teammates, my coaches and the people around me,” McDaniel said.

“Coming back from surgery is a humbling experience. You don’t realize how much you have to rely on different people to help you. My mom was a huge help.”

McDaniel said she’s still learning to listen — and appropriately respond — to her body and understand she might not feel 100 percent every day.

“The mental piece is the biggest challenge, just being able to navigate through that,” she said.

Clearly she’s doing something right. She has played 31 games, coming off the bench in 29, and is averaging 11.6 points and 4.5 rebounds. She has hit a team-high 74 3’s.

“It’s definitely something that I’ve always worked and focused on,” McDaniel said of her shooting prowess. “I just have always loved to shoot. Even in high school, (former Twin Valley head) Coach (Mark) Morrow got us a shooting machine my freshman year. I think that was my best friend in high school.”

McDaniel hit 266 3’s for the Raiders. She is one of six girls to score 2,000 points in the Berks Girls League. Her 2,102 points trails only Daniel Boone’s Wendy Davis (2,504), Schuylkill Valley’s Corielle Yarde (2,283), Hamburg’s Zena Edwards (2,231), and Reading High’s Rashida Suber (2,111). Kutztown’s Stacey Jack (2,034) also reached the 2K mark.

McDaniel became just the 48th player in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history to shoot 100 percent from 3-point range with at least seven attempts; she also matched her career high in points with her performance in the Sun Belt Conference championship.

The first 3-pointer came with 4:30 left in the first quarter to give the Dukes a 12-6 lead. Back-to-back 3’s in the second quarter forced Texas State to call a timeout, trailing 25-19 with 5:47 remaining.

“I think after the first three 3’s, they called a timeout,” McDaniel said. “Coach ‘O’ (JMU head coach Sean O’Regan) looked at me and said, “You might be able to get three more.’ I was just feeling good.”

McDaniel drilled another with 5:15 left to extend the lead to nine and another two minutes later to push it to 33-23.

By the time she hit her sixth it was 56-37 with 1:12 left in the third; her seventh made it 71-44 with 6:22 left in the game.

McDaniel also secured nine rebounds to go along with 91-percent shooting from the field and perfect shooting from 3-point range and the foul line.